Los Angeles, CA (February 8, 2011)-- Shotgun
Software announced that the Visual Effects Society used the
Shotgun web-based production tracking and collaboration system to
streamline its review and selection process for the 9th Annual VES Awards.

Taking a cue from the production industry, where many companies
use Shotgun to manage their projects, the Visual Effects Society
Awards Committee tapped Shotgun to manage its own review of the
industry's best work. The system gave all Award Committee members
instant online access to all submission materials, notes and
real-time progress.

The VES Awards Committee (spread across several countries)
reviewed hundreds of entries consisting of multiple QuickTime video
reels, support documentation and submission forms across
twenty-four award categories. They vetted each entry for adherence
to rules, verified each reel and checked printed statements for
accuracy. The process included 2,800 tasks overall, and all were
completed via Shotgun's web interface.

"We have a lot of information coming in from different sources,
in a very compressed time period," said VES Award Committee
co-chair Andrew Orloff. "Several of us had experience with Shotgun
from our work in production an d believed it would be an ideal
solution for giving the whole committee the ability to see
everything at a glance."

Jeffrey A. Okun, Chair of the Visual Effects Society, said, "The
VES Awards review process is an exercise in large volume content
management and global communication —the same challenges we face
in production today. It makes perfect sense to use Shotgun, the
same solution that's being used throughout our industry, for this
process."

The Committee began investigating Shotgun mid-way through 2010,
with Committee member Mike Romey doing a test with previous years'
submission data to prove the concept and customize the production
management system for an awards review scenario. Romey then wrote
tools in Python to enable entries submitted online via Sohonet to
be published to Shotgun as RSS feeds every night so Committee
members could begin the vetting process even before the submission
deadline had closed.

A streamlined process was particularly important this year, as
changes to the Awards calendar and a venue switch moved the VES
Awards ceremony up, cutting the submission review period from six
to two weeks.

"With Shotgun our process was incredibly efficient," said Romey.
"We had all of our information accessible in its most updated
format in the cloud, and no documents floating around. This reduced
duplication of efforts, and allowed multiple committee members from
disparate locations to review entries in the most organized and
efficient way possible. We could see our progress through charts,
showing us how much of the task we had completed and what still
needed to be done. It wasn't just that we saved time. We did. The
bigger benefit was that we had a much broader view of the entire
awards at our fingertips, so we could deploy resources precisely
and immedia tely."

"We got a real kick out of watching the VES customize Shotgun's
database and web interface to support this unique workflow," said
Shotgun's CEO Don Parker. "We're looking forward to working with
the VES on other projects in the future."

About the Visual Effects Society

The Visual Effects Society is the entertainment industry's only
organization representing the full breadth of visual effects
practitioners including artists, technologists, model makers,
educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists
and producers in all areas of entertainment from film, television
and commercials to music videos and games.

About Shotgun Software

Shotgun Software was founded in January 2006 by a group of
visual effects professionals to build production tracking and
pipeline solutions. The founding members worked together on a major
studio animated feature, and are developing Shotgun to fill the
mounting industry need for a commercially viable system for
managing complex projects spread across multiple locations. Shotgun
is actively developing the system with more than 100 industry
studios including Digital Domain, Double Negative, Framestore,
Rainmaker, Playstation, Blizzard, Zoic Studios, Dr. D, and Laika.
For more information, and an online demonstration, visit www.shotgunsoftware.com.

Please note: If you find the color of the text hard to read,
please click on "Printer-friendly" and black text will
appear on a white background.

Create your masterpieces
with products from the Renderosity MarketPlace